


It evaded me

by MistressYin



Series: Just A Word [12]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Cheating, F/M, Minor Nancy Wheeler/Jonathon Byers, Snowball Fights, Spying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 00:51:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,202
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16608710
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MistressYin/pseuds/MistressYin
Summary: Steve momentarily forgot his problems.





	It evaded me

**Author's Note:**

> SUP 
> 
> And the phrase of the day is...It evaded me!

It was two days since the tea bag incident with Karen. He had completely forgotten about it until seeing Hargrove in the locker room without his Jersey once again.. He had half a mind to say something, but had let it be. It really wasn’t his place. 

He was embarrassed to say that the problem evaded him once again until Hopper brought it up.

Chief Hopper had actually had a conversation with him about it after that, telling him Billy was eighteen and therefore he couldn’t intervene with the alias of working for the law. 

Which meant they had the old argument of telling the kids and the husband the good old fashioned way. Was it there place? No. But would everyone be super pissed at them if they said nothing? Absolutely.

Joyce wanted to tell, as she said if it was her being cheated on she’d like to know. 

Hopper said it wasn’t there place. He was okay with people being pissed at them. He didn’t need to ruin someone else’s marriage to. Besides, the wife had nowhere to go if they ended up getting a divorce. Let it be. 

Joyce countered that just because he didn’t know, doesn’t mean that it wasn’t happening. She brought up Jane with that argument and now they weren’t speaking. 

So that left him. In the car, with two kids he was hiding things from. He could honestly say, in an odd way, it was nice to have a secret again. He was so used to keeping something from everyone that not having one made him feel overtly vulnerable and empty. But that didn’t mean he liked the secret itself and al it entailed. 

Why were parents just the worst?

Hell, what if the Mr. Wheeler found out and didn’t want his kids to know?

And that’s just on Mike and Nancy’s side. We still have Maxine and her brother that fucks up everything. If she found out, she would probably take the entire blame and alienate herself from the group further. 

He hit his head against the wheel with a groan, forgetting about his passengers. 

“You okay, Steve?” Jonathon asked quietly at shotgun because apparently Nancy being there was inappropriate and a kid being there was unfair so Jonathon!

He turned to look behind him at the rest of the group, who were all scrunched up in the back seat and complaining about Nancy taking up too much space. 

He scoffed, but didn’t answer. Jonathon didn’t push.

The ride back was full of loud oblivious chatter which made it worse. All secrets he usually kept were his, and didn’t affect others. This was definitely affecting others more than him!

So he did something stupid. He pulled the ex-boyfriend card. 

When they pulled up into the driveway he kicked the kids out, before asking Nancy to hold up. Jonathon gave him the stink eye. 

“Hey, hey, I just need to talk to Nanc’ for a bit. It’s not like that.”

The kids listened and left because it was ‘grown up’ stuff, but Jonathon stayed put stubbornly. That was probably better for both of them anyway. 

He waved him off. “If you want to stay, that’s fine. This only concerns Nancy though, and it’s serious.”

This time Nancy pursed her lips and Jonathon squared his shoulders. 

He took a deep breath. “SO! You two remember my birthday, right?”

That through them off guard it seemed, as they both masked on looks of inquiry. He barreled through. 

“Okay, well the reason I was so distracted is because when I came back to the house when the kids called, I saw something weird. I stopped for a while and your mom came in.”

Nancy suddenly looked very concerned, as did Jonathon as if this was for her health or something. 

He rubbed his face. “Jeez I’m really sorry bit I’m just going to be blunt.”

Steve bought himself time by leaning against the car door and avoided their gazes. “Your mom was flushed. She was wearing a basketball jersey with the number 13 on it. Every day at the same time since, which it’s only been two days but I’ve still been watching, both Hargrove and Karen disappear at the same time of day. Right in the middle of school. I know this because I called Mike asking to talk to her about teaching me to make her chocolate cake. She wasn’t home.”

He dug his palms into his eyes. “I’m sorry Nanc’,”

Nancy looked awful. He lips were parted and she was shivering from the cold, her hair mussed. He continued rambling just to fill the silence. “I thought I’d tell you because you might not want me telling Mike, and it’s not my place to tell your dad. That’s why Joyce and Jim have been fighting so much. If there was a way not to have gotten involved I would’ve taken it.” 

That’s when Jonathon stepped forward with a deep breath. Apparently, this alerted the spying children he hadnt known were spying.

“Don’t HurT STEVE HES Just HeartBROKEn!” was the battle cry, which had him choking on a laugh as Dustin raced forward, followed by a hissing Max that he should’ve stayed quiet. 

The rest of the kids head peeked out form various places. Two were behind a tree, one had ducked under the car, and the last remaining was crouching in a bush. 

He shook his head. 

Jonathon lips had involuntarily quirked up. Steve held his hands up, backing off. 

“If only the fair lady would retake my request for her hand!” he called dramatically, making it known it was only a joke and that the kids could step back and so could Jonathon. He wasn’t after his girlfriend. 

This caused the panicked children to pause. “You aren’t going to beat up Steve?” Will asked skeptically from under the car. 

Jonathon’s face was one of sheer amusement. “No. Steve was just planning to shovel talk me.”

Steve smacked his forehead hard as Nancy burst into still shy from their previous conversation giggles. 

Every kid in the area took this for face value and groaned. 

Steve rubbed his temples. At least they hadn’t heard his conversation. Or most of them, because the look in Will’s eyes said different and he had been under the car they were talking next to. 

Silly Steve, for thinking the kids would actually listen to him and go away. 

Will nodded. “I need to shovel talk Nancy.”

Steve grinned triumphantly as Max Jonathon choked on his spit. “Oh, you’re getting it for that one.” Jonathon teased. 

They all engaged in a cold game of capture the other person, with Jonathon winning having gotten Will, Jane (the traitor), Dustin, and Max all to flank to him. Lucas stayed neutral declaring he was not to be taken prisoner, and Mike flocked to Jonathon’s side eventually because he was the only other person who would let him go for Nancy. 

So the game was really attack Steve with snowballs at Jonathon’s command and not to get hit by rogue Lucas. Manage a hit on Nancy for double points. 

And soon the he forgot once more about his half-secret, diving into the game before him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks again from MistressYin!


End file.
